The novelist Robert Harris was right to call the BBC’s lack of a books show a ‘disgrace’. There’s plenty the corporation could do to make a popular literary programme on TVWith injury, there is always a little insult. When a BBC spokesperson, responding to Robert Harris’s complaints at the Costa book of the year ceremony about the absence of a dedicated book show on its television channels, pointed out that the corporation was responsible for introducing readers to books by way of adaptations such as Wolf Hall and The Casual Vacancy, one might feel that Harris’s comments – in which he called the absence of a BBC TV books show an ‘absolute disgrace’ – had been somewhat misunderstood.While Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling, their publishers, agents and the book industry doubtless benefit from book adaptations, the BBC’s motive in putting them on is not altruistic. It does not broadcast these adaptations to benefit poor, garret-bound writers, nor because it thinks the publishing industry is struggling to connect with potential readers, nor because it worries that amid the hubbub of rapid-fire entertainment opportunities, the novel is becoming marginalised. It does it because the best novels - whether classic or contemporary, comic or tragic, philosophical or political or romantic - are masterpieces of narrative and entertainment. The BBC is in the debt of writers of such novels as Parade’s End, Mapp and Lucia, South Riding, Death Comes to Pemberley and The Night Watch for... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
Nikkei’s $1.3 billion deal to buy the Financial Times underscores the fact that the publishing industry’s fortunes lie in going digital, experts say. Continue reading at Knowledge@Wharton
[ Knowledge@Wharton | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Big successes in the publishing industry come in threes…or fours, fives, and sixes. Serialisation is a key factor in developing brands and launching star authors such as JK Rowling and George RR Martin. Publishing a series means each successive book accumulates a larger readership (propagated... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers will get “quicker and wider access” to book proofs from across the publishing industry through a partnership with the Booksellers Association and NetGalley. UK booksellers will get access to digital proofs from over 50 publishers – including Bonnier, Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The theme of this year’s Children’s Media Conference (CMC), which took place 1-3 July in Sheffield, was “All Change”. Which is apt, because the children’s TV industry (from which this conference was originally born) is experiencing a disruption just as profound and perhaps more urgent than... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ovum’s new Digital Consumer Publishing Forecast is published tomorrow. It takes a five year view at how this sector will change. Ahead of publication, Ovum analyst Charlotte Miller gives TheMediaBriefing an exclusive look at some of t ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More than 1,000 new books from Macmillan US are to be added to Scribd, doubling the number of titles available from the publisher. In January Macmillan US put 1,000 backlist titles on to subscription service Scribd. Today (9th July) it will add titles including Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist Kerry Hudson is setting out ‘a provocation’ calling for wholesale change to encourage and reflect broader spectrum of voicesThe award-winning novelist Kerry Hudson is set to make a bold call for change in UK publishing, which she believes is failing “to reflect the extraordinary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paula Hawkins’s novel has now been top of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, outlasting even Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol• How Paula Hawkins wrote ‘the new Gone Girl’A record set six years ago by Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was broken this week by Paula Hawkins’s dark thriller The Girl on the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The changing nature of the worldwide book industry is sharply demonstrated in the upper echelons of the 2015 edition of the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry: for the first time, publishing houses from outside Europe and North America have cracked the top 10. Both the groups—Phoenix... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When it comes to high-calibre non-fiction, risk-averse trade publishing houses are producing too many copycat ‘smart thinking’ books that promise more than they deliver. But praise should be given to the university pressesAmid the ambient wails of doom about the publishing industry, I’d like to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Non-human cover stars are two-a-penny in the publishing industry. Just check out Miley with Bubba Sue on the new issue of Paper magazine. But, as many celebrities past and present show, you have to pick your companion with care…In the competitive world of magazine covers, you’re nobody unless... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What a difference a year has made with BookCon, with this year's literary fanfest featuring not one but two author panels specifically addressing issues of diversity in books and in the publishing industry itself. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel, Martin Amis and Dan Davies have made the 13-strong longlist for the Gordon Burn Prize 2015, which "champions a fresh, fearless approach to writing". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Teri Hayt has worked for both large and small news organization during her 35-year career in the publishing industry. She’s worked for Time-Life Books, Inc., the Arizona Daily Star, Sports Illustrated, Newsday, the San Diego Union-Tribune ( ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The BBC’s miniseries adaptation of The Casual Vacancy, a pungent, unhappy novel-for-adults by J.K. Rowling, has an especially formidable bundle of expectations to clear. Like any television retelling of a book, it must do right by its (difficult) source material—then factor in the reflected... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figures from across the publishing industry are limbering up for the Virgin London Marathon this Sunday (26th April). Nick Coveney, head of digital at Blink Publishing, will be running to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society and the Albert Kennedy Trust via his fundraising page. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The publishing industry is constantly evolving with improved workflows and processes. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Society of Authors has said that a “publishing industry which does not reflect society fails writers, readers and itself”. Nicola Solomon, the organisation’s chief executive, and HarperCollins’ director of people John Athanasiou have backed a new report calling for improved diversity across... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The last 10 days have been an especially busy period for all parts of the publishing industry, with major events taking place in London, Minneapolis, and Austin. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new publishing model has launched, offering authors a 50% share of revenue on book sales. Lightning Books, the fiction imprint of the newly created Eyestorm Media, operates a co-publishing model. It was founded by Eye Books owner Dan Hiscocks, a former director of the Independent Publishers’... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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